


Hushed Harmonies

by Hyperionova



Series: Silent Syllables [2]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Cats, Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life, high school romance, selective mutism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 09:31:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19226410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyperionova/pseuds/Hyperionova
Summary: Prequel/Sequel to Silent Syllables.





	Hushed Harmonies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LaxiSiva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaxiSiva/gifts).



“Sehun,” Kai called, sounding a little frustrated.

Keeping Sehun’s attention was never really a tough chore for Kai. Whenever he entered the room, he always received Sehun’s undivided attention. Except when there was a cat involved.

“Sehun,” Kai tried calling again. “Pay attention.”

Sehun looked away from the window where the street cat was sitting on the ledge, licking its paw.

“Okay,” sighed Kai and pointed to the textbook. “Let’s get back to our homework.”

Sehun nodded his head. He never spoke unnecessarily. Not even with Kai. Not even after knowing Kai for about six months now, since they had agreed to become friends.

“We must solve this math problem,” said Kai. When he looked up again, Sehun was staring at the cat again. “Do you want to pet it or something?”

Noticing the exasperation in Kai’s tone, Sehun shook his head quickly and lowered it.

Kai shot up from his seat and wandered over to the kitchen window. Yanking it open, he shooed the cat away. Then when he returned to the dining table where they had their books strewn onto, Sehun frowned at him.

“There,” Kai huffed, plumping back in the chair. “Now we can focus.”

Not that Kai wanted to study either. He would rather just get this over with as soon as possible so that he could go play. And he had promised to help Sehun with his homework.

“So, how many pies are left if you take twenty out of forty pies?” said Kai, reading off the page in the textbook. “That’s simple.”

As he scribbled the answer into his notebook, Sehun only stared at him, chewing on the end of his pencil.

Kai blinked at him. “What? Don’t you know the answer to that question? It’s twenty.”

“Oh, don’t just give him the answer, Kai,” said Sehun’s father as he sauntered into the kitchen with an empty mug in his hand. He was wearing glasses. Kai had never seen the man with glasses. “He won’t learn anything that way.”

Pouring some coffee into the mug, Mr. Oh walked over to the table and put a hand on the back of his son’s head.

“Now, Sehun,” he said. “If you had ten jellybeans and you had to give Kai five, how many would you have left?”

Sehun kept quiet for a moment. He held his hands together as his cheeks began to turn into a gentle shade of pink. He glimpsed Kai and looked away. If Kai did not know any better, he would have thought the boy was blushing.

But boys did not blush! That was a girl’s thing, wasn’t it?

The apple of Sehun’s cheeks now looked like his knees that were always pink, always soft.

“Zero,” he told his father in a whisper.

“Sehun, it’s a very simple math ques—” his father began to say but was cut off by his son.

“Because I would give him all of them, Daddy,” Sehun rasped, refusing to look at Kai.

Mr. Oh stifled a smile as he ruffled Sehun’s hair before he wended his way out of the kitchen, sipping his coffee.

It took Kai a moment to realize that he was not breathing. Then clearing his throat, he tried to look tough by scowling. He put a finger on the page and said, “Next question.”

* * *

Kai got in trouble at school, though not for the first time, thanks to Sehun.

He sat in the principal’s office, waiting for his mother, with his arms crossed over his puffed-out chest, lips pressed into a thin line, jaw clenched, eyebrows furrowed into a glower. He could not believe that Sehun had done this to him.

It was not fair. It was not as though he was trying to hurt Sehun’s feelings. And the fact that he was pulled into the principal’s office to be given a proper reprimanding was ridiculous! Sehun had been ridiculous!

If only the boy weren’t so delicate and pink, Kai would have punched him. He punched his other friends for being jerks sometimes. Sehun was also his friend. But Sehun was no Max or Louis. He was… soft.

Even so, Kai was really angry this time. He was not going to forgive Sehun easily for tattling on him like this.

His mother showed up at the principal’s office a while later. She looked worried and a little vexed.

“Kai,” she rasped when she found him sitting in one of the chairs. Grabbing his arms, she dropped to a crouch. “What happened? Why were you sent to the principal?”

Kai scowled furiously. He was too angry to talk. He wanted to kill something.

“Mrs. Kim,” called the office clerk. “Principal Fei will see you now.”

Sighing, his mother rose back to her full height and hauled Kai up with her. “What did you do this time?” she grumbled as she dragged Kai into the office.

“Mrs. Kim,” said the principal as he stood up to shake Kai’s mother hand. “Good to see you again. Unfortunately, this isn’t one of our meetings where I could give you some good news about Kai.”

His mother huffed heavily. “It never is.” She glared down at Kai.

Kai stuffed his hands into the pockets of his pants and continued to pout.

“What did he do?” she asked the principal.

“He… used a certain indecent ‘s’ word to one of his classmates today. I’m not sure if you know Oh Sehun? They seem to be friends.”

Kai’s mother’s eyes widened. “Sehun?” She turned to Kai now. “You had a fight with Sehun? Why?”

“The boy was embarrassed,” said the principal. “He broke into tears in the class.”

“He’s a crybaby!” Kai yelled at the principal.

“Kai!” his mother chided, grabbing hold of Kai’s arm. “Thank you, Principal Fei.” She sighed. “I’ll take it from here. I’m sure his father will be _very_ disappointed when he hears of this.”

Kai groaned as he was yanked out of the office.

The ride home was loud. His mother was not going to stop berating him any time soon. Kai glared out the window with his chin planted in his hand, strapped to the seat.

“This isn’t how your father and I raised you,” she said when they reached home. Kai kicked his shoes off and started for the stairs. “Kai, come back here!”

Grumbling, he walked back to his mother.

“And where did you learn to say ‘shit’?! That’s it. No more TV for you!”

Kai looked up at her then, blinking confusedly. “I did not say ‘shit’ to Sehun,” he said. “I know that’s a bad word, Mom.”

His mother stopped then. She stared at Kai with an arched eyebrow. “What? Then what’s the… ‘s’ word?”

Kai dropped his gaze to his feet. He had just recently learnt the word. Max told him what it meant. It was a nice word. It was a compliment. It was positive. Kai did not understand why everyone was giving him a hard time for saying it.

“Kai, are you going to tell me what the ‘s’ word is?” his mother asked in a calmer tone now.

Exhaling heavily, Kai mumbled, “ _Sexy_.”

His mother said nothing for a long moment as she gawked at Kai. Then lowering to her knees, she took hold of Kai’s shoulders and said, “And you said that to Sehun?”

“Well, yeah,” he muttered. “I just thought… he was sexy.”

“What do you think sexy means?”

Kai blinked. “It means pretty. Cute.”

His mother sighed. “Kai, it is not appropriate for an eleven-year-old to call another boy sexy. You will head over to Sehun’s house right now and apologize to him.”

“Why should I apologize?!” he yapped. “I paid him a compliment! He is cute! And he started crying like a baby!”

“You will not argue with me,” she said. “Go now.”

Kai clenched his fists. He was going to refuse. But then he recalled the way Sehun had started crying earlier when Kai walked up to his desk and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt while he was trying to eat his peanut butter and jelly sandwich and, with a serious expression, said, “You’re sexy when you’re eating.”

Perhaps Kai had scared him.

He did not like seeing Sehun cry. And perhaps it was the fact that Kai had made him cry when he had promised to protect Sehun that made Kai so angry. Perhaps he was angry at himself for causing Sehun that distress.

He hung his head. “Okay, Mom,” he said and pulled his shoes back on before he headed over to Sehun’s.

He stood nervously at the doorstep with a lump in his throat. Ringing the doorbell, he neatened his shirt and tried to calm his racing heart.

The door opened after a while. “Oh, hello, Kai,” said Mr. Oh.

“Hey, Mr. Oh,” muttered Kai. He chewed on his lower lip for a moment before saying, “Is… Sehun here?”

“Yes, he is,” the man said and glanced back into the house to call for Sehun. Then looking down at Kai again, he said, “He came home in tears, rubbing his eyes. I was very worried. He told me about what happened.”

Kai wanted the ground to swallow him. God, this was embarrassing. But Mr. Oh did not seem like he was mad. He still smiled.

“I thought it was funny,” said Sehun’s father, chuckling. “But he is very upset that you got in trouble because of him.”

Kai’s heart skipped a beat at that. “Oh…”

“Ah, there he is.”

When Sehun showed up, he hid behind his father, clinging to the sleeve of the man’s shirt as he peeped at Kai worriedly. His eyes were puffy and swollen. And so were his red lips. Kai wondered just for how long the boy had been crying.

“Kai wants to see you, Sehun,” said Mr. Oh, rubbing Sehun’s back reassuringly. He then left them alone to talk.

Kai cleared his throat, scratching his head. He looked away as Sehun continued to stare at him with those guilty, piteous eyes. “I’m sorry,” he murmured in a voice he could barely hear himself.

Sehun sniffled. “I’m sorry, too,” he whispered.

They sat down on the porch steps and stayed quiet for a long time. Sehun was shaking his knees, playing with his shoelaces.

“Are you… mad at me for… calling you… the ‘s’ word?” Kai asked at length.

Sehun kept his head low as he slowly shook it.

“Are you… sad that I called you that?”

Sehun shook his head again.

“Well… are you happy then?”

Sehun’s face turned red. “Daddy says… we can’t say that word because… we’re kids.”

Kai grumbled under his breath. “My mom told me that, too.” He hated the adults. They always treated kids like idiots. “I’ll tell you what!” He turned to Sehun. “I will say it to you as many times as I want when we grow up!”

Sehun eyes bulged out first before he giggled softly. He gave Kai a nod of his head in agreement.

* * *

Even at the age of thirteen, Sehun ate his cookies with both hands and small bites. Kai was not sure why it bothered him so much. He could never seem to look away whenever Sehun ate.

But he had even stranger way of eating chocolate chip cookies. He would pick out the chocolate chips and eat them first before he’d hold the cookie with his hands and took tiny bites with his small mouth, as though he wanted to savour the cookie forever.

“Cookie?” Sehun asked Kai, fishing out one from the jar.

“No, don’t distract me!” Kai rasped as he returned his attention to the videogame.

Sehun was not offended. He put the cookie back into the jar and continued to eat the one he was holding. He was not into videogames like Kai was. He was into basketball either. He also did not share Kai’s love for comic books. But he was always there where Kai was.

He sat close to Kai on the couch with his feet drawn up. He watched Kai play his videogames silently, just the way he liked watching Kai play basketball with his friends.

“Ah! I lost,” Kai bellowed and tossed the controller onto the coffee table before he slumped back against the couch.

Sehun picked out a cookie again and held it out to Kai.

Kai took it this time. He scooted away when Sehun pressed up against his side. Sehun did not notice it. Kai wasn’t sure why he did that either. He had never had any trouble sitting close with Sehun before. But now… whenever their skin touched, it went sent shivers down Kai’s spine. He did not think that Sehun noticed any of it.

* * *

“I did it! I did it! I did it!” Max hollered when he showed up at Kai’s that evening to play some basketball.

Louis and Kai gaped at him as he sprung over to them with an idiotic wide grin. “Did what?” asked Louis.

Coming to a halt, Max dropped to a seat on the ground and caught his breath for a moment. “I… kissed… her,” he said between gasps.

Kai blinked. “What?”

“Moira and I went out for milkshakes earlier!” he exclaimed. “And she kissed me!”

“Are you serious?!” grated Louis in disbelief. “How was it?!”

“It was _wonderful!_ ” he cried. “You have no idea! God, her lips were so soft!”

Kai rubbed the back of his neck with an arm curled around the ball. He was happy for Max, of course. But this had been Max’s third kiss with a girl and Kai had never kissed even one.

“How did it happen?” asked Louis. “Tell us everything!”

“Well, I just leaned in and I didn’t actually know if she was going to kiss me. But then she did!” Max fell back to lie down on the ground. “Oh, it was magical.”

“Good for you,” Kai sighed.

Later that night, he sat on the porch, sulking. It was not as though the girls at his school did not like him. He just never really returned the attention. Perhaps he should.

With a heavy breath, he raised his head and glanced in the direction of Sehun’s house.

He was surprised to find Sehun perched on the porch steps, crying.

Kai could not believe his eyes for a moment.

Rising to his feet, he hurried over to the other side of the street. Sehun really was crying, hugging his knees to his chest.

“Sehun?” he called, approaching the boy.

Sehun’s head jolted up and turned to Kai. He wiped his cheeks and stood up.

“Are you… crying?” Kai asked, a little dumbstruck.

Sehun shook his head at first, wiping his eyes. Then when Kai frowned at him, he nodded his head slowly.

“What happened?” Kai inquired, hands already balling into fists. “Who made you cry?”

He was ready to hit anyone who hurt Sehun. No questions asked.

Without answering the question, Sehun took hold of Kai’s hand and started tugging at it.

He dragged Kai to the backyard. He started crying again when they reached a cardboard box that was roofed by a blanket. Kai heard some faint, pitchy meows coming from it. Nearing it, he took a peek into the box.

It contained a cat and four kittens. Kai recognized the mother cat the kittens were nursing on. It was the street cat that roamed around the neighbourhood.

Pointing at the box, Sehun said, “We waited and waited.”

Kai turned to Sehun again, terribly confused. He had no idea why Sehun brought him back here or what it had do with him crying.

“For what?” he asked Sehun, frowning.

Sehun held onto the sleeve of Kai’s shirt and whispered, “The daddy cat.” He pressed his face against Kai’s shoulder then. “He never came.”

Kai stood still. Part of him wanted to shove Sehun back and call him an idiot. But another part of him wanted to wrap his arms tightly around the innocent little boy and hold him there forever.

“I don’t think… he’s coming,” Sehun whimpered against Kai’s shoulder. “She has… four kitties. Four! How will she take care of them all on her own?”

“Well, your dad takes care of you on his own,” said Kai, pulling back.

It was strange for boys to hug each other so… tightly.

“Yes,” Sehun murmured, snivelling. “But I am… one and small. She has… four.”

Kai scratched a side of his head. “Um… We can look after them?”

Sehun blinked his teary eyes. “We?”

“Yeah. We’ll give them some food. Some milk when the mother’s not around. We’d be their daddies.”

That put Sehun at ease. He stopped crying. He grabbed Kai’s hand again and pulled him toward the box. The crouching down, he yanked Kai down with him.

“I named them,” he said quietly. “I cried earlier when I realized they can’t open their eyes. Daddy said it’s because they’re new-borns, so it will take a while before their eyes open.”

Kai smiled at that. “What are their names?”

“Butterscotch, Buttons, Baby and Brownie,” he said, pointing to the respective kittens.

Kai stared at Sehun then. The way Sehun smiled… He had really pink lips. Plump. Probably soft. Would they feel as soft as Moira’s when they were kissed?

All that Max did was lean in.

Kai was unconsciously leaning in, too.

“Baby is the smallest,” Sehun said.

Kai pulled back at once, realizing what he was doing. His blood ran cold in that instant. “My mom will look for me,” he blurted out and shot up to his feet. “I should go home.”

“Oh,” Sehun let out and rose with him. With a smile, he nodded his head. “Good night, Kai.”

Kai walked away as briskly as he could without it looking weird.

A few days later, he kissed a girl for the first time. He told his friends all about it. He wanted to tell Sehun all about it, too. But for some odd reason, he could not. He did not want Sehun to ever find out that he had kissed someone.

* * *

He was thirteen when he first wanted to kiss Sehun.

When he turned fifteen, his urges got so much worse.

It was hard to be in the same room as Sehun some days. Kai had discovered new things about his body, parts of it that deeply craved for attention whenever he saw, heard, smelled, touched Sehun.

Sehun, who noticed things that no one else did in the world, had always failed to notice the most obvious things. Kai was glad for it this time.

It felt wrong to think of his friend that way. It felt wrong to think of any boy that way. But at the same time, it was natural. There was nothing that Kai could do to stop it.

“Can you sit over there?” Kai asked one day, throat tight and parched, when Sehun slid closer to him on the couch while they were watching a movie at Sehun’s place.

Sehun blinked at him.

The past two years had been kind to Sehun. He was growing into this… torturously beautiful boy that left a lump in Kai’s throat every single damn time. His skin was suppler than ever. His lips were fuller. His cheeks were rosier.

Kai, on the other hand, was a skinny boy with patches of stubble on his face and a voice as coarse as gravel. Puberty was his enemy right now.

“Why?” Sehun asked, his wide eyes boring into Kai’s.

“Uh… it’s too hot,” Kai said. It was not exactly a lie. It was hot. His body was burning.

Sehun’s eyebrows rose. “It’s raining outside,” he muttered.

“Exactly,” mumbled Kai. “It’s clammy and humid.”

Sehun did not argue any further as he moved away from Kai to sit on the other end of the couch.

Although it helped Kai’s raging hormones for a while, his blood was back to stirring in his loins as a salacious scene came on in the movie. Kai swallowed hard and pinned Sehun with a sidelong glance.

Sehun’s eyes were fixated on the TV screen. He was almost unblinking. He watched it as though he were entranced by it. And then slowly, his cheeks began to turn crimson. Kai tugged at his hoodie to get some air into it so that he would stop sweating. When he looked down, he frowned at the visible bulge in his jeans.

He glanced to Sehun nervously. The boy was now flushed red, his eyes still focused on the TV.

Clearing his throat, Kai rose from the couch. Sehun looked to him then. “I just forgot,” Kai muttered. “I have homework to do. I should head home.”

Sehun stared at him confusedly. “Can’t… you do it tomorrow?” he asked softly. “It’s Sunday tomorrow.”

Kai tried to quickly come up with an excuse and then realized that he did not have to lie. “I have basketball practice tomorrow, remember?”

“Oh,” he let out and sighed. “Okay.”

Kai practically ran out of the house without sparing Sehun another glance.

As soon as he was in the privacy of his own bedroom, he hurriedly locked the door and jumped onto his bed. Grabbing the pillow, he pressed it to his face so that he could scream his lungs out.

He hated himself so much for having such intentions. Sure, he could not help those lascivious thoughts. But that did not mean it was not wrong. Would Sehun even be friends with him if he knew? God, of course not.

It would pass, Kai thought. It had to. It was just an attraction. It would pass.

He would do anything for it to pass.

* * *

So, he got himself a girlfriend.

He did not tell Sehun about it. He didn’t know why. He told everyone else about it. But he kept it away from Sehun.

Not that it mattered, anyway. It lasted less than a week.

Having lewd thoughts about his friend felt wrong. But so did being in a relationship with a girl he did not even like all that much.

When he told her that he was done with her, she spewed a bunch of profanities at him before she flipped him off and walked away.

Kai came home that evening and spent a good few minutes with his hand in his pants, thinking about a familiar set of plump, rosy lips. He thought about them pressed against his mouth, wrapped around his cock.

“Fuck,” he gasped in a shaky breath as he came all over his hand. He tried to compose himself for a stretch. Then slamming his head back against the mattress a few times, he groaned and cursed himself.

Sehun did not deserve this disrespect.

He tried avoiding Sehun after that. As much as he could. But it was not easy since Sehun was always close at hand both at the school and at home. There was only so much that Kai could stay away from him.

He left Sehun’s text messages unanswered. Sehun did not like talking over the phone, so he almost never called Kai. And when he showed up at Kai’s doorstep, Kai would tell him that he was busy with one thing or the other. It killed him to dismiss Sehun like that. To see Sehun turn around and walk away, knowing very well that Kai was simply making excuses to not to spend time with Sehun.

At school, Kai stayed close to his other friends. Whenever he saw Sehun walking up to him, he would distract himself with anything else. Sehun would stop in his tracks and turn around with a frown.

In Biology one day, Sehun awaited him with that eager, anxious look on his facet that always melted away when he saw Kai.

Walking into the science lab, Kai stopped momentarily to look at Sehun, whose apprehension waned as a small smile stretched the corners of his lips.

Kai gripped the strap of his schoolbag and glanced the room for a vacant seat. He found one near Max.

“Hey,” he said, ambling over to Max.

Max looked at him like he was looking at a ghost. “Oh… Hey.”

As Kai plumped down in the seat next to Max, the latter cocked an eyebrow at him. “What?” asked Kai.

“Why are you sitting here? Don’t you always sit with the mute?”

“I told you not to call him that,” Kai growled at him.

Max lifted his hands in defence. “Okay, sorry.”

Sighing, Kai glanced over to Sehun once more. The boy had his head dropped low, shoulders slumped.

Later that day at school, Sehun caught him off-guard at the lockers.

“Sehun,” he gasped with a start when he found Sehun staring at him as he shut his locker. “Geez, you scared me.”

Hugging some books to his chest, Sehun looked at him sadly. “Had I… done something wrong?” he asked in a quiet voice, only for Kai to hear.

Kai gawked at him wordlessly for a moment. His heart sank. “No, Sehun,” he let out then, crestfallen. He wished that he could tell Sehun that he had been avoiding him for his own good. Well, for the good of their friendship at least.

“Then… why are you… ignoring me?” Sehun asked, head hung, voice thick with sorrow. He looked close to tears. “It… hurts… me.”

Kai had never heard him admit to his pain like this. Over the years, he had seen Sehun hurting and in pain countless times. Oftentimes, it was for trivial things that ordinary people would not even pay any heed to.

For instance, like the time Sehun had broken down in tears when he learned about snakes. He remembered finding Sehun crying in an empty classroom after a Science class.

Kai had almost lost his cool as he hurried to Sehun’s side with bated breath and fisted hands. He was ready to fight whoever that made Sehun cry.

“ _Sehun_!” he had cried. “ _What’s wrong? Why are you crying_?!”

Sehun raised his head from the desk and pointed to their Science textbook. Kai blinked at the picture of a snake.

“ _It’s a… snake_?” Kai muttered. “ _Are you… afraid of them_?”

Sehun shook his head, eyes red and watery, cheeks as scarlet as his nose and lips. “ _I just… realized… they have no hands_ ,” he panted out and buried his face in his hands to cry some more.

Sehun cried a lot for animals. Sometimes, he cried for his father. His father was tired. He was lonely. Sehun thought he was a burden to his father. Other times, he cried because of people who wanted him to speak.

And right now, he was crying because of Kai.

Perhaps it was for the better. Kai did not believe that this untoward attraction and desire would die out anytime soon. The best course of action for the both of them was for him to maintain his distance.

“No,” Kai said, keeping his tone steady and harsh. “Stop imagining things, Sehun. I have a life, which does not revolve around you, contrary to what you think. I have other friends. I’ve got things to do. I’m not ignoring you. I’m just busy, okay?”

With that, he shoved past Sehun and walked away as fast as he could before he could change his mind and run back to Sehun to hug him.

* * *

Kai did not try all that hard to stay away in the end.

He missed Sehun too much.

After basketball practice one day, he biked home and stopped before Sehun’s house. With trepidation and a little hesitance, he rang the doorbell. He quickly ran his hands through his sweaty hair to neaten it and hoped that he did not smell too bad.

When Sehun opened the door, Kai mustered a smile.

Sehun did not smile back as he clung to the doorframe, gaze dropped to the ground. He almost never answered the door. He must have known it was Kai who was at the door.

“Hey,” Kai said nervously.

“Hey,” Sehun replied in a whisper without looking up at Kai.

Kai rubbing the nape of his neck and said, “You… want to hang out at my place later? We can play a game? Or watch a movie.”

Sehun took a moment to respond. But he did eventually. He raised his head and nodded his head a little.

That was the thing about Sehun.

He always forgave Kai, no matter how big Kai’s guilt was. He held no grudge, no resentment. He was as pure as they came. His heart was full of colours and candies. For someone who had no trust in humans, Sehun was the epitome of humanity.

They agreed to do their own stuff every now and then. Sehun said that he would not be upset if Kai wanted to sit with his other friends in class or cafeteria. Kai apologized for being harsh about it earlier. Sehun apologized for being a burden and for suffocating Kai.

That hurt Kai a little.

He wished he could just confess everything to Sehun and spare them the pain. Of course, then he would have to undergo the pain of losing Sehun for good.

“You are never a burden to me,” he told Sehun, draping an arm over Sehun’s trembling shoulders as they sat on Kai’s bed. “You are not… suffocating me, Sehun.”

Sehun did not seem convinced, but he bowed his head in obedience, anyway. Because he wanted to please Kai. He would do anything to please Kai so long it did not require him to be in the presence of other people, especially people who made him anxious.

* * *

They were seventeen when Kai had bloodied and almost broken his knuckles for Sehun.

He had finally punched someone’s teeth in at school. He did not think that he would ever forget the adrenaline that had rushed through his veins as he bludgeoned the asshole’s face until some bones in his hand cracked.

The day started out like any other day. Uneventful.

Kai waited on his bike in Sehun’s driveway, waiting for the boy like he did every morning.

Hurrying out of the house, Sehun flashed a toothy grin at Kai before he went to grab his bike from the garage. He gave the cat, Baby, a pat on the head on his way out. Out of all the four kittens they had cared for, only Baby was still around.

Sehun said the others must have found boyfriends and girlfriends in the next neighbourhood. When Kai asked why Baby had stayed, Sehun told him that there was a new randy tomcat in the neighbourhood that had an eye on her. He might become her potential boyfriend one day.

“Good morning,” Sehun told him like he did every morning, jumping onto his bike.

“Ready?” Kai asked.

Sehun nodded.

They rode to the school together. And most of the days, they biked back home together, too. Days when Kai had to stay back for his basketball practices, Sehun would head home first.

Pulling into the bicycle parking racks, they locked up their bikes and started toward the school building.

Kai threw an arm around Sehun’s shoulders and pulled him close. Even now, it was difficult to pretend like he did not want to push Sehun up against a wall and kiss the freaking daylights out of him. But Kai had learnt to control his urges. He no longer had to run to the boys’ toilet in the middle of a class to relieve his pent-up frustration just because he caught a glance of Sehun sucking on the end of a pen in the classroom.

But most nights, he fantasized about a lot of things he would like to do to Sehun and the boy do to him in return. It was still wrong. His sinful, pornographic thoughts were unforgivable. But he had made his peace with it. He did not care. He knew he would never make a move on Sehun. He should at least be allowed such imaginations in the privacy of his mind.

“I got a new videogame,” Kai said. “It’s supposed to be really violent! Do you want to come over when I’m home from the basketball practice?”

Sehun shuddered. “Violent?” he asked in a whispery breath, looking at Kai worriedly.

Kai remembered the one and only time Sehun had gotten mad at him. It was when Kai killed a dog in a videogame. Even though he told Sehun that the dog was one of the bad guys and it would have killed him in the game, Sehun told him that he never should have bought such a videogame and supported the creators of the game who did not mind making a dog, a harmless animal, the subject of their horrors.

“Right,” Kai sighed. “Maybe it’s not the one for you.”

“Look at that voiceless freak .”

The comment halted them dead in their tracks.

For a moment, Kai did nothing but stand stock-still as the words rang in his ears. Blood pulsed in his temples. Heart hammered against his chest.

He turned around and surveyed the parking lot for the source of the derogatory remark.

Sehun’s face had turned red. He too understood that the insult was lobbed at him. But he was embarrassed. Not enraged as Kai was.

His eyes spotted Gideon perched on the back of his pickup truck. Withdrawing his arm from Sehun, Kai turned on his heel.

Sehun grabbed hold of his hand. “Kai,” he said in a very soft plea.

Kai yanked his hand free and balled it into a fist as he started toward Gideon and his band of reprobates.

Gideon leaped off the pickup truck and glared in Kai’s way.

Sehun hurried after Kai and seized his arm again. “No, don’t,” he whimpered, trying to hold Kai back.

Kai shoved Sehun away before he stomped over to Gideon. Stopping before the shorter boy, Kai bared his teeth and spat, “What did you call him?”

Gideon clenched his jaw and grabbed Kai by his varsity jacket. “I was not talking to you, Kim. Walk your ass away before I whoop it.”

“I dare you to fucking say it again!” Kai growled through his teeth, lurching forward at the boy.

Gideon’s eyes shot past Kai’s shoulder and glared at Sehun, who quickly lowered his head. He looked afraid, but he was even more afraid to say anything.

With a smirk, Gideon said, “That’s what he is, isn’t he? A freak. What? You want to say something to me? Come on, speak up.” He looked at Kai again. “Tell me. Does he make any noise when he sucks your di—”

Kai cut him off, launching a fist into the boy’s face. Gideon staggered and cupped the side of his face that was just struck. Kai huffed loudly, chest heaving, teeth clenched.

The students in the parking lot stopped to spectate the debacle that was unfurling before them.

“You son of a—” Gideon spat and lunged at Kai with a cocked fist.

Dodging it, Kai struck his face again. And again. His knuckles hurt, but he did not care.

“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” the others began to chant around them.

Gideon tackled him to the ground before he could plant another punch in the bastard’s face.

Grunting, Kai kneed him in the abdomen and hooked an arm around the boy’s neck to yank him down. He then mounted Gideon, straddling him with a hand clutched around Gideon’s shirt.

He slammed his fist into Gideon’s skull repeatedly until he felt a bone crack in his fingers. He could hear Sehun’s cries. It almost held him back, but his anger blinded the rational part of his brain. He wanted to break Gideon’s mouth that called Sehun a freak.

He was not sure if it were Gideon’s blood or his own that began to stain his knuckles. It did not stop him, however.

He did not stop until he felt Sehun’s hands on his back, tugging at the jacket to stop him. He was sobbing, but he still could not find his voice to beg Kai to stop.

Kai was dragged off Gideon by a couple of teachers who showed up a moment later. “The next time you say a word about him, I will rip your fucking tongue out!” he roared at Gideon, who was writhing on the ground.

“Mr. Kim!” rasped one of the teachers, keeping a firm grip on Kai’s arm. “Calm down!”

Still growling and huffing, Kai yanked his arms free from the teachers. He then turned around to follow the teachers into the hot bowl of trouble soup that was awaiting him. He did not care.

He stopped when he saw Sehun.

The boy was staring at Kai’s bloodied knuckles. He could not look away from them. Sehun held his hands to his mouth to muffle the sobs.

Scowling, Kai proceeded toward the school with his fists still clenched.

His father had been furious, of course. He told Kai that he would have thrown him into jail without a second thought if only Kai had not been a minor. Kai groaned, sitting at the kitchen island while his mother bandaged his hands.

“If this is a glimpse of the hooligan you are about to become,” his father yapped. “then I will have you know that you cannot live under _my_ roof! You had a fight at school, fine! But you broke that kid’s nose! You’re lucky his parents are not pressing any charges against you!”

Kai withdrew his hand from his mother, who had not said much since they returned from the hospital after an X-ray. She seemed a little disappointed, but she did not look angry. If she had been, she would have let Kai know by now.

As Kai began to storm out of the kitchen, his father caught his arm and halted him.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me when I’m talking to you,” his father said through his grit teeth, his grip tightening around Kai’s arm.

Kai glared back at the man, his breathing quickening with exasperation. He stood with his shoulders squared, ready for another challenge.

But then his mother spoke.

“Let him go, honey,” she said with a sigh.

The older man glanced to her with a disbelieving look. “Let him _go_?” he spat. “He just attacked someone at school. You want me to just let him go?”

His mother exhaled heavily. “The boy was harrying on Sehun. Our son was protecting him. Did we not teach him to stand up for himself and for those who can’t do it for themselves?”

Kai felt his father’s hand loosen around his arm, although he did not release it. His mother had always had a soft spot for Sehun because he was motherless and was different from the other kids. Kai liked that about her. But he knew his father also liked Sehun and wanted the best for him. He often told Kai that Sehun was the only proper friend Kai had that the man did not want to lob a brick at.

He watched his mom walk up to her husband’s side to stroke his arm. “Just like how you’re there to protect those who can’t do it themselves,” she told him and gave his cheek a kiss.

Though still scowling, the man let go of Kai’s arm. “So, what? We’re supposed to just let him walk scot-free?” he asked.

“No, of course not,” said his mother. “We’ll ground him.”

“Mom—” Kai began to protest.

“For three weeks,” she said, staring Kai down, even though he was so much taller than her now.

“But the game I have on Friday—”

“You can’t play with those hands, anyway. Apart from school, you’ll be going nowhere. Any further negotiations will result in the extension of your punishment.”

Kai pursed his lips then, groaning. “Can I… go see Sehun at least?”

His parents exchanged a look. Then with a nod of her head, his mother said, “Just this once.”

Kai made his way over to Sehun’s after taking a shower. It had been a long day, and the last time he had seen Sehun, the boy was covered in tears and dread. He must have scared Sehun a lot.

It was never easy to get Sehun to have faith in the kindness of people. He was always afraid of what people would think of him. Of how they might judge him if he spoke. But today, he had heard someone call him a freak so blatantly in front of so many people. It must have traumatized him.

When Mr. Oh got the door, looking more tired than usual, he did not offer Kai a smile like he always did. “Kai,” he said in surprise and then his gaze dropped to Kai’s bandaged hands. “What happened to your hands?”

Kai blinked. Did Sehun not tell him about the fight? “Uh… I punched a kid real hard in the face, Mr. Oh.”

Mr. Oh stared at him in incredulity. “I cannot tell if you’re joking or being serious, Kai.”

Kai raised a hand to the back of his neck and rub it nervously. “Can I… see Sehun, Mr. Oh?”

“He hasn’t come home yet,” said Sehun’s father. Kai gawked at him for a moment. The man’s expression hardened then. “He said that he is studying at the school library. I assumed you were with him.”

Kai did not dillydally to answer him as he raced back to his own house. As he grabbed his bike, his father called out to him from the porch.

“Kai, where do you think you’re going?!” he yapped. “You’re grounded!”

Ignoring the man, Kai jumped onto his bike and pedalled as fast as he could down the road. His heart was thundering in his throat, his stomach twisted into knots. He was not sure why his eyes were stinging with tears.

Over the years, he had learnt that whenever Sehun was having a bad day, there was always the one place he would go to. The thought of Sehun not returning home because he was upset with what had happened today tore at Kai’s heart.

He gripped the handlebar hard, even though his hands hurt.

Slowing down, he finally breathed again when he spotted Sehun perched on the sidewalk outside Patty’s candy store with a bag of jellybeans sitting at his side. He had his arms enveloped around his legs, knees hugged to his chest. His bike was leaning against the wall.

Kai panted for air as he braked to a halt and planted his feet on the road. Then standing the bike, he walked over to Sehun.

Sehun did not look up until Kai plumped down beside him on the sidewalk. For a long stretch, they said nothing to each other, letting the silence hang heavily between them.

And then Kai broke the quiet. “I know you are upset. But I did it because… I care about you, Sehun.”

It was a little harder to admit the truth than he thought it would be. He cared about Sehun. More than Sehun would ever know. And it ate at Kai’s soul a bit. He wished that one day, he could take Sehun’s face in his hands, look into those beautiful eyes, and tell him just how much Sehun meant to him.

He flexed his left hand when it ached a little.

“And… if you’re sad about what that… moron said, don’t be,” he said. “He’s wrong.”

Sehun shook his head slowly then. He was not looking at Kai. “No, he isn’t,” he told Kai in a small whisper. “I am a… freak.”

Kai wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him hard and tell him that he was wrong too in that moment. But he held onto his composure.

“I know that,” Sehun muttered. “I know and… I’m okay with it. I want to… be like this. I’m… more comfortable like… this. I’m okay with being a freak.”

“Then why did your face wilt when he said it? You can lie to yourself, Sehun, but I can see right through your bullshit.” He faced Sehun with a glower. “Even if it’s not a lie, and that you really are okay with it, _I’m_ not, okay? And I don’t have to be okay with it. I will get angry. I will punch anyone who puts you down. I will break their face. And I don’t need your permission or blessing for it.”

He looked away, gripping his jaw. He did not know why he was so furious. Probably because Sehun would never understand that Kai had done it because he was so stupidly in love with him.

As the evening breeze caressed his cheeks, Sehun gently wrapped his fingers around Kai’s bandaged hand.

Kai confusedly watched the boy lift the hand. He held his breath as Sehun brushed his lips against Kai’s injured knuckles. Then with his eyes closed, Sehun pressed the back of Kai’s hand to his cheek. He held it there for a long while, relishing in the warmth of Kai’s touch.

Even then, in that delicate, intimate moment, Kai wanted to lean in and see if Sehun would kiss him.

“Don’t,” Sehun breathed out with his eyes still shut tightly, although his eyelashes began to clump together with tears. “hurt yourself… again… for me.”

Kai did not make him that promise.

* * *

If anyone had told him that day that he would be sitting here today, in the kitchen, with a thick lump in his throat, mustering the courage to tell his parents that he was dating Sehun, he would have called that person out of their mind.

Sitting at the island, Kai idly stared at the bowl of cereal before him with his heart hammering against his ribcage. Though he was convinced that it did not matter what his parents thought of this situation. It was his decision and Sehun’s. No one else had any say in it. Even so, he could not calm his clamouring heart.

He raised his head and looked at his parents nervously.

“Don’t be late for dinner tonight,” his mother told her husband as he curled an arm around her waist to pull her close for a kiss on the cheek.

“Wait, Dad,” rasped Kai, jumping up to his feet.

His father turned around to face him. “What is it?” he asked, fixing the buttons on his shirt.

Clearing his throat, Kai gnawed at his lip for a moment.

His father cocked a curious brow at him. “What did you do this time?” he asked with a sigh.

“Nothing,” Kai blurted out immediately. Then scratching the back of his head, he said, “Well, it’s not exactly… nothing.”

His mother stopped to look at him now. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?” she asked.

“Nothing’s really… wrong… per se,” Kai sighed. “I just, um, have something to tell you guys.”

His parents pinned each other with a dubious look. Then turning to Kai again, they waited for him to say more.

Kai gulped before he began. “So… The thing is… I’m… seeing someone.”

He did not expect them to react immediately. He had expected them to gawk at him the way they were gawking at him right now. They were not surprised that Kai was seeing someone. They were probably just confused as to why Kai was announcing this to them. He had seen people before. He had had some girlfriends. He had never bothered to officially inform his parents about it. But Sehun was something else.

“Good for you, son,” his father said nonchalantly before he turned around to leave. “I’m going to be late for work.” He gave his wife a kiss on the lips and started to walk away.

“It’s Sehun.”

That halted his parents in their tracks.

It was out there now. There was nothing that Kai could anymore. So, he stood there, staring at his mom and dad, impatiently waiting for one of them to say something, even though he was determined that whatever they say would not sway his decision. He was stubborn like that.

His mother reacted first.

With a wide smile, she rushed to Kai’s side and gave him a hug. “That’s wonderful news,” she said. Although her expression was clearly questioning and confused, she genuinely seemed delighted. “And when did this happen?”

Kai licked his lips. “Just recently,” he muttered. He was not expecting his mother to be so nice about it, even if she was usually nice about most things. Kai looked to his father next with a frown. The man was staring at him. “Dad?”

Huffing heavily, his father crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know what to say… But if you two are dating then… just be respectful and… safe.”

Kai frowned deeper. “But… is it okay with you?”

His father rubbed his cleanshaven jaw and said, “He’s a good boy. It’s just a… little shock, that’s all. And I hope you don’t string him along for something you’re not serious about.”

“I am serious about him, Dad,” Kai said. “I’m not going to hurt him.”

“Good,” his father let out. Then pursing his lips, he turned around. “I’m off to work then.”

His mother gave Kai’s arm a pat before she went away to see her husband off.

Kai could not help the smile that crept onto his face then. He could not wait to tell Sehun the good news.

* * *

He walked up to the lockers after class later that day when he found Sehun leaning against his, arms wrapped around some books. Behind the glasses he sported was a worried lour.

“Why that face?” Kai asked, approaching his boyfriend with a silly grin.

Sehun looked up at him and sighed heavily.

Coming to a standstill, Kai leaned his side against the lockers and smirked at Sehun. “Something wrong?”

He could not do anything about the grinning. He was happy to see Sehun. He was happy. So happy. To call Sehun his boyfriend. To think of what they had done together the other night. To fantasize about what other wonderful things awaited them in the future.

Sehun nodded his head slowly with a pout on his pillowy lips. “I didn’t… tell my dad,” he said in a very, very low voice.

“Oh,” Kai muttered. “I told my parents.”

Sehun’s eyes widened at once. His breath caught.

“Relax,” Kai said, smiling. With one hand lightly gripping the strap of his backpack, he brought the other to hold Sehun’s wrist.

He saw the way Sehun’s cheeks turned florid immediately. Sehun glanced around them before he dropped his head shyly. Although he was afraid of attracting attention, he did not pull his hand back from Kai when the latter took hold of it.

“They are fine with it,” Kai said in a murmur, leaning in.

Sehun kept his head hung. He then lifted a hand to Kai’s chest, closing his fingers around Kai’s shirt.

“Don’t want to kiss me?” Kai asked with a faint smile.

Sehun swallowed. His fingers tightened around the shirt. “I want to,” he whispered.

But he was not going to do it in front of so many people. Kai adored that about him, too.

Kai shifted from where he was standing and pinned Sehun against the lockers. He could almost hear how hard Sehun’s heart was beating.

Raising his hands to the lockers, he trapped Sehun between the lockers and himself. “Then kiss me,” Kai exhaled.

Sehun kept his eyes low, his parted lips quivering. He shook his head bashfully.

“Then can I kiss you?”

Sehun sucked in a shaky breath. “You’re being… very needy right now,” he told Kai quietly.

Kai chuckled softly. “I remember _you_ were being quite needy the other night when I was—”

Sehun gasped and yanked Kai forward by the shirt before quickly smashing his mouth against Kai’s to shut him up.

Kai’s heart almost fell out of his chest. God, he was so smitten.

He retrieved a hand from the lockers to cup the back of Sehun’s head, sliding his fingers into Sehun’s silky hair. For a moment, they lost themselves into the kiss. Kai gently kissed Sehun’s soft lips, savouring each of them with little nibbles and licks. Even though Sehun was reluctant at first, he was now clinging onto Kai’s shirt, kissing him back with everything he had.

“No fornicating in the hallways, Mr. Kim, Mr. Oh.”

Kai lazily broke the kiss to smugly look at the teacher, who strutted past them while Sehun pulled away from him as though he had been scorched. His face was as red as a tomato. It was cute.

“I should go,” Sehun rasped, licking his lips, as he shoved his glasses up the bridge of the nose and started to turn around.

Kai caught his hand to stop him. “I will come by later,” he said. “We can maybe tell your dad… about us… together if you’re too nervous.”

That seemed to have reassured Sehun. The tension drained from his expression as he nodded his head with a small, “Okay.”

As he walked away, Kai heaved a deep sigh and leaned against the lockers with a lovesick grin etched on his face.

Later that evening, as they made their downstairs from Sehun’s room, Sehun slipped his hand into Kai’s to hold it. Kai paused mid-staircase to look back at Sehun.

“I’m scared,” Sehun muttered, face all ashen and wilted.

Kai gave his hand a gentle squeeze. He doubted that Sehun’s father, of all people, would give them a hard time over this. If even Kai’s dad could be understanding, Kai knew that Mr. Oh would be happy for them. Or he was about to be proven completely wrong.

“It will be all right,” he said to Sehun and brushed a kiss on the forehead.

Sehun gasped lightly. Showing such affection was still very new to both of them. Though it might be a little awkward, Kai hoped that Sehun was comfortable with him doing such things, at least in private.

Unsure of whether or not Sehun liked the kiss on the forehead, Kai went for another one, experimentally.

Sehun’s eyes widened when Kai planted another kiss on his forehead. Then he blushed.

“Is that… okay?” Kai asked.

Sehun gave a shy nod of his head.

“What about this?” Kai tilted his head and pressed a kiss to the side of Sehun’s neck.

Sehun shivered and writhed before he reflexively shoved Kai back by the chest. With his back slammed against the wall of the stairs, Kai smirked at Sehun.

“Dad’s downstairs,” Sehun mumbled embarrassedly, covering the spot where Kai had just kissed with his fingers.

The fact that he was still so shy after what Kai had done to him the other night lighted a fire in the pit of Kai’s stomach.

He had not stopped thinking about that night when he had Sehun in his mouth, hard and hot. They had not done much since. Kai was fine with it. Perhaps it was better to take things slow. Although they had already achieved emotional intimacy after having been each other’s best friend for years, it would take some time before they could be entirely comfortable with physical intimacy.

Taking hold of Sehun’s hand again, Kai led him down the rest of the way.

Walking into the living room where Sehun’s father was occupied with the TV, they approached the man with trepidation. Sehun’s fingers tightened around Kai’s. Pulling them free, Kai placed a hand on the small of Sehun’s back to nudge him forward.

“Go,” he said, ushering Sehun toward his father.

With dreadful look on his face, Sehun gently tapped his father on the shoulder from where he stood near the couch.

Mr. Oh tore his gaze from the TV screen to look at them. He raised his eyebrows at them. “Is something the matter?” he asked, glancing to Kai and then back to his son again.

Sehun rubbed his arm as he reluctantly raised his gaze to his father. He looked at Kai one more time before he faced the man. “Dad…” he began in a trembling voice.

His father looked slightly alarmed then. “Did something happen?” he inquired, sitting up straighter.

“No, Mr. Oh,” replied Kai. “We… uh… have something to tell you.” He looked at Sehun. It was not that he did not want to speak on Sehun’s behalf. But this was Sehun’s responsibility. He did not want to disrespect Mr. Oh by seeming subjugating.

“Daddy,” Sehun mumbled softly. “I… I…”

His father waited with an amused look now.

Sehun’s chest was heaving hard. Then with one shallow breath, he hurriedly blurted out, “Daddy, Kai and I are boyfriends now!”

Kai flinched and grimaced. He stared at Sehun for a second. Did he have to spit it out there like that? He then turned to Mr. Oh anxiously.

The man let out a loud breath and returned his attention to the TV. “I know,” he muttered.

Kai’s jaw fell slack. “You do?” he asked.

“Yeah. Your mother called earlier today,” he said calmly. “And it was just a matter of time before it happened. Sehun said that he liked you.”

Kai gaped at Sehun next. “You did?”

Sehun kept mum, face turning fiercely red. “Dad,” he let out. “Is this… okay?”

His father smiled at him then. “I’m more than okay with it. So long you’re happy.” His eyes shifted to Kai.

With his blood running cold, Kai said, “I will be nice to him, Mr. Oh. I will keep him happy.”

“I know you will,” he said, bowing his head. “Thank you for making the effort to tell me, though. Both of you.”

They walked out of the living room with a breath of relief. Sehun still looked like he was in disbelief as he walked Kai to the front door.

“That was it,” Kai said, stepping outside.

Sehun raised his gaze to meet Kai’s. “That was it,” he muttered.

Kai bit his lip for a moment, slipping his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. “You told your dad that you liked me?”

Sehun tried to retreat back into the house and shut the door.

Kai pushed it open and grabbed Sehun’s wrist to yank him out. Crashing against Kai’s chest, Sehun steadied himself, blushing hard.

“When did that happen?” asked Kai, keeping a tight grip on Sehun’s arm so that he would not slip away.

Sehun frowned and struggled to push Kai away. Then conceding defeat with a tired breath, he said, “When you told me to… stay away after… kissing me.”

“Oh.” Carding his fingers through his hair, he released Sehun. “I wish you had told me that instead of telling your dad.”

That made Sehun blush again. “I must go back inside,” he mewled, spinning around.

“What? No kiss goodbye?”

Sehun stopped with his back turned to Kai. Then a moment later, he walked back to Kai and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before he hurried inside. As he shut the door, Kai sighed and headed back home.

* * *

“So,” his mother cooed one morning during breakfast.

Kai looked up at her from his stack of pancakes. “What?”

Grinning, his mother leaned over the kitchen island and said, “What was the first date like?”

Kai blinked at his mother wordlessly for a minute. “What?”

“Your date with Sehun,” said his mother.

That was when it struck Kai that he had never really been on a date with Sehun in spite of them deciding to become boyfriends. It left him dumbfounded for a second.

“We… haven’t been on a first date,” he muttered to his mother, whose eyes ballooned.

“Are you serious?”

Kai was glad that his father had left for work early today. “Yeah.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” Kai shrugged. “It never crossed my mind before.” And it probably had not crossed Sehun’s either.

“That is not right,” said his mother. “You need to go on dates.”

“But why? We already know everything there is to know about each other.”

“Sure. But you know the things you wanted each other to know as friends. Dating is different. There are other boundaries you must break in order to be in a healthy relationship.”

Kai vacantly stared at his plate then. Could she be right?

“Besides, have you thought about Sehun? Would he not want to go on a date with you?” she inquired.

Kai was certain that Sehun would be happy not going anywhere with people around them. But Kai did not exactly know if Sehun had ever entertained the idea of a first date. It did sound romantic.

Was Sehun romantic, though? He could not give Kai a kiss without blushing to death. How would he react if Kai asked him out to a romantic date? Sadistically enough, Kai wanted to find out.

“You think… I should ask him out on a date? Like… an actual date?” he asked his mother.

“Well, yes, of course,” she said. “It will be so cute.”

 

“I don’t know where to take him, though.”

“Hmm… How about the cinema? It’s private, and he would not be too uncomfortable.”

She had a point. As cliché as it was, it might be just the right first date for Sehun.

At school that day, Kai tried to resist the urge to stare at Sehun the entire class. But he failed time and again in every class that he shared with Sehun.

Sehun never looked in his way even once, though. Kai sighed, almost like a lovesick pup, resting his chin on the desk. He wondered if Sehun were thinking about him, too. About that night when they were in bed together. It did not seem like it. He was just staring at his book, chewing on the end of his pen, adjusting his glasses every now and then.

Kai clenched his jaw and fists, wanting to walk over to Sehun and bite his ear.

“Dude,” Max called, lobbing an eraser at Kai’s head.

Scowling, Kai tore his gaze away from Sehun and fixed it on his friend. “What?” he hissed, annoyed.

Max eyed the teacher then, jerking his head toward the woman.

Kai looked over to Mrs. Lee, who was glaring at him. “What has you so distracted, Kai?” she asked.

Kai licked his lips. “Uh… nothing,” he said.

“Then why don’t you answer the question I just asked you?”

 _Shit_. He scratched his head for a moment. “Uh…”

“How do you plan on graduating this year?” she chided.

Kai huffed and leaned back in his seat. “I thought that was your job and that’s why you’re here.”

He smirked and held his clasped hands on the back of his head as the other students snickered.

He spent two hours in detention for that.

* * *

“So, are you and Sehun really a thing?” Louis asked him after basketball practice as they sat on the bleachers, catching the breaths. Kai ran a hand through his sweaty hair and smiled to himself.

Then sipping some water out of his bottle, he nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”

“I kind of saw it coming,” his friend said.

Kai sighed and slumped back in his seat. “I’m trying to work up the courage to ask him out on a date.”

“A date?” he echoed. “But haven’t you two already known each other for a long time?”

“Yeah, but… dating is different, you know? I feel like he is not totally used to us being boyfriends yet.”

“So, you want to woo him?” Louis smirked.

Kai shoved him away with an elbow. “Shut up.”

“Are you blushing? Gosh, I’ve never seen you blush before.”

“I said shut up,” he grumbled. “I’m not trying to… _woo_ him.”

Although the idea of wooing Sehun made Kai’s chest feel warm and tingly.

“What have you planned then?”

“I’m thinking about taking him to the movies,” Kai said. “It’s safe. He would be comfortable. I just have to pick out a movie he’d like.”

“What type of movie does he like?”

Kai shrugged. “Disney shit or something like that. He gets queasy when he sees blood.”

“Well, do that then.”

“I don’t know how to ask him.”

It really was ridiculous and irrational that he could not find the courage to ask Sehun something so trivial after everything. But that was the deal with the devil he had made he supposed.

“Just go over to his house with some flowers, if he’s into flowers, he seems like he would be, and ask him.”

“He doesn’t like flowers,” Kai sighed. “He says we kill the bees by plucking flowers.”

“Then bring him something he likes. I’m sure he won’t say no, so what are you so worried about?”

He had a point. What was Kai so worried about? They were already boyfriends.

So, on his way home, picked up some jellybeans. After taking a shower and cleaning himself nice and neat, he headed over to Sehun’s.

His father answered the door. “Oh, Kai. He’s upstairs,” he said with a smile.

Kai hurried up the stairs with his heart in his mouth. He gave the bedroom door a light knock before walking in.

He froze altogether when he found Sehun in nothing but his boxers, with a head full of damp hair, skin glistening with mist, perched on the edge of the bed with the street cat on his lap. He was holding the cat’s front legs in his hands with his face buried into the cat’s fur as he kissed its belly. The cat remained still, its tail wagging and eyes bulged out in a panic while _Pretty Woman_ by Roy Orbinson played in the background.

Kai cleared his throat to make his presence known.

Sehun craned his head up smugly at first before he gasped, realizing it was Kai, and hurriedly released the poor cat to the floor. He then grabbed the blanket on his bed to cover himself up.

“What are you doing here?” he rasped, standing up.

“What were _you_ just doing?”

Sehun’s face turned red at once. He glanced at the cat that hurtled out of the room past Kai. “I was… giving its tummy some kisses.”

“It looked like it was terrified out of its wits.”

Sehun dropped back into his seat on the bed. He looked sad all of a sudden. Hugging the blanket around his bare body, he murmured, “I’m not so good at it.”

Kai blinked at him. “Not so good at what?”

It took him every last silver of his self-restraint to not to march over to Sehun right this instant and do some filthy stuff to him. He tried to keep his eyes from wandering to all the exposed inches of that milky skin.

“Kissing,” Sehun mumbled embarrassedly.

Kai gawked at him for a second. “So, your big solution to that is to practise on a non-consenting street cat?”

Sehun pouted then, looking up at Kai. “Please don’t mock me.”

Smiling, Kai walked over to the bed. Sehun uncomfortably shifted on the bed, tugging the blanket tighter around him. Kai stopped. “I’m just saying… why do it with a cat when you have a boyfriend to practise on?”

Even Sehun’s neck turned red at that. “So, my kissing _is_ bad?”

Kai smirked. “Yes,” he said. “You still need to practise a lot.”

Sehun frowned at him. “You’re lying. You just want me to kiss you a lot.”

“Is it working?”

Sehun’s eyes fell to the bag of jellybeans Kai was holding in his hand. “Are those jellybeans?”

“Oh, yeah.” Kai handed it to him. Then massaging the back of his neck for a moment, he said, “There is actually something I want to ask you.”

Sehun waited for him to continue.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Kai hesitantly asked, “Do you… want to go to… I don’t know… the movies with me?”

Sehun stared at him without a response.

“Say… tomorrow evening?” Kai added.

Then lowering his gaze, Sehun fidgeted with the bag of jellybeans and gave a shy nod of his head. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Kai let out, unable to hide the grin that started playing on his lips.

“Can you… go now?” Sehun asked next in a polite and soft tone. “I must get dressed.”

“Well, it isn’t as if I haven’t already seen your—”

“Daddy!” Sehun cried.

Kai hurried out of the bedroom. “Okay, okay. Fine. Geez.”

* * *

He had to wear his best clothes for their first date night. He had also picked the perfect movie that was playing in the local theatre. _The Muppets_.

He waited for Sehun at the theatre, anxiously pacing a hole into the ground, restlessly peering at his watch. Sehun was not late, but Kai was too highly strung to be standing still. This was the first time they would be out in the public as a couple. It was both exhilarating and nerve-racking.

When Sehun finally showed up, Kai’s heartbeat stopped for a while.

He was… beautiful. He too was looking his best, clad in a white sweater, head swept neatly, glasses left at home.

“Hi,” he said, walking up to Kai.

“Hi,” Kai exhaled almost in something like awe. When he slipped an arm around Sehun’s waist to draw him close. Sehun did not protest when Kai gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Okay?”

Sehun nodded. “What movie are we watching?”

“Oh, _The Muppets_.”

Sehun frowned then. “But you don’t like the Muppets.”

“I don’t mind. Come on.”

Sehun caught Kai’s hand to stop him. “I don’t want you to sit through the movie for me.”

Kai doubted that he would be watching the movie at all with Sehun at his side. “It’s all right, Sehun.”

“No,” he huffed. “Let’s watch something you want to watch.”

“I’m not sure _you_ would want to watch something like that.”

“I do!” he rasped.

After a moment, Kai said, “Well, okay then.”

They decided to see an action movie. Which turned out to be a good idea.

Every time a violent scene came on, Sehun would reach for Kai’s hand or hug his arm.

“My little heart is going to explode!” Sehun told Kai in a sharp whisper during one of those scenes. “Who even allowed them to make such a movie?!”

Kai chuckled softly and pressed a kiss to Sehun’s cheek.

The way Sehun bit his lip suggested that he liked that sign of affection. So, Kai gave him another one. He noticed how Sehun’s breathing quickened then.

Gently taking hold of Sehun’s chin, Kai turned his face so that he could kiss Sehun on the lips. Sehun did not protest. The theatre was dark and loud. And mostly empty. Nobody was paying them any heed anyhow.

They forgot all about the movie for a while as they kissed, slowly at first. And then as Kai curled his hand around the back of Sehun’s neck, pulling him even closer, Sehun kissed him harder. It took Kai by surprise since Sehun was not one for taking initiatives. Not that he was complaining, though.

Sehun put his hand on Kai’s chest next as Kai sucked on his lip. He heard a small whimper break from Sehun’s throat when he kissed the spot beneath Sehun’s bottom lip.

He let Sehun go after a while, but for the remainder of the movie, neither of them paid much attention to it. Kai’s head was buzzing with all sorts of ideas. He thought about putting a hand on Sehun’s knee and sliding it up his thigh. He was not sure if that would be too much for Sehun. He did not want to push his luck, so he kept his hands to himself.

After the movie, Kai accompanied Sehun home, hoping that Sehun would give him another kiss as they said their goodnights.

But as they reached Sehun’s house, the boy faced Kai with reddened cheeks.

“My dad is not home. He said that he would not be home until late night,” he told Kai diffidently.

Kai’s throat tightened. But he waited Sehun to say more before he could jump to conclusions and embarrass himself.

“Do you… want to… come in?”

Kai’s heart nearly leaped out of his chest on the account of that invitation. Composing himself, he bowed his head calmly. “Sure.”

As they entered the house, Kai waited for Sehun to lock the door before he followed the boy into the kitchen. “Do you want something to eat?”

Yes, there was someone in particular that he wanted to eat. But Sehun meant food. So, he shook his head.

“No, I’m good.”

“Okay,” said Sehun as he retrieved the milk carton from the refrigerator. He then filled a glass and a bowl with some milk before putting it back. The glass of milk was for him. He picked the bowl up and wended his way to the backdoor. Opening it, he placed the bowl of milk on the ground for Baby.

Then shutting the door again, he grabbed the glass and chugged the milk down the same way Kai had learnt to chug beer.

“What… do you want to… do now?” Sehun asked next, wiping the strip of milk from his upper lip.

Unable to hold himself back any longer, Kai lurched forward and closed the distance between them. Grabbing Sehun’s arms then, he pinned the boy against the refrigerator and crushed his lips beneath his own.

Sehun moaned against Kai’s mouth, hands rising to grip Kai’s shirt by the chest, as Kai kissed him hungrily. He uttered no objections when Kai slipped a hand into his sweater at the back and caressed along his spine.

Then breaking the kiss with his lips throbbing, Kai panted, “Should we… take this upstairs?”

Sehun nodded his head, face all red and flushed. “Okay.”

This was happening. Oh, God, it was happening.

Taking Sehun’s hand, Kai started for the staircase. His heart was going nuts. But he was sure Sehun was even more nervous. So, maybe he would just have to be confident and brave for the both of them. It was not as if Kai did not know his stuff.

He paused, however, at the bottom of the stairs to look back at Sehun. “Do you have protection?” he asked, just in case if Sehun did not have any, he could run back home and get some.

In that instant, he was not sure why Sehun’s face paled, as though he had seen a ghost. He looked like he was suddenly afraid of something. “Wh-Why?” he asked shakily. “Who’s up there?”

Kai stared at him. “No, I meant… protection for…” he trailed off, rubbing his neck. “Of course, you don’t have one.” He sighed.

“Oh,” Sehun muttered then, realizing what Kai wanted the protection for. “Maybe we can… do something else?”

Kai decided that it could wait. So, grabbing Sehun’s hand again, he dragged Sehun upstairs.

As soon as they were in Sehun’s bedroom, Kai shut the door behind him and looked at Sehun for a moment. As much as he wanted to take things slow, he did not want to wait any longer. Lunging at Sehun, he caught Sehun’s head in his hands and rammed their mouths together for a languid, deep kiss.

“Can we get out of these clothes?” Kai gasped upon Sehun’s lips.

Sehun bowed his head in agreement, although he looked embarrassed.

Kai guided him to the bed without disconnecting their lips until he sat Sehun down on the bed. Then he hastily began to unbutton his shirt while Sehun watched him with a sheen in his eyes. As shy as he was, it was clear as day that he wanted this just as much as Kai did.

Removing the shirt, Kai discarded it on the floor and waited for a moment for Sehun to look up at him. When he finally did, the boy lifted his trembling hands to Kai’s abdomen to caress the lean yet solid muscles there.

Kai cupped Sehun’s face in his hands and bent low to kiss him gently on the lips. “Your turn,” he whispered against them, drawing a thumb along a side of Sehun’s jaw.

Sehun did as he was told and peeled the sweater off. Kai climbed onto the bed next, kneeling on either side of Sehun to straddle him.

There was little that Kai to do to keep himself from touching, exploring every inch of Sehun’s supple, unblemished skin. Laying Sehun down, he kissed those plump, pretty lips again, running a hand down the side of Sehun’s torso.

When he pulled back, Sehun looked at him with half-lidded eyes and said, “I want to.”

Kai pinned him with a raised eyebrow. “You want to what?”

Sehun turned his scarlet face away. Then gnawing at his lip for a moment, he murmured, “Do what you… did to me… the other day.”

Kai’s chest tightened and his blood shot to his nether regions. Climbing off Sehun, he plopped himself onto the bed as Sehun mounted him now. They kissed as hard they could without hurting each other. Sehun’s hands that were pressed to Kai’s abs were warm and eager. Kai let Sehun have it his way and fell back on the bed with a hand hastily undoing the fly of his jeans.

He then propped himself up on his elbows while Sehun slithered down on him. “Sehun,” he called, bringing a hand to tenderly hold the back of Sehun’s head. “Are you sure you want to?”

Sehun gave a determined nod. “I want to,” he whispered and hooked his fingers into the waistbands of Kai’s jeans and boxers. Lowering them, he then curled a hand around Kai’s rapidly hardening cock.

He looked at Kai, licking his lips.

“Like this?” he asked.

Kai tightened his fingers around Sehun’s hair and bucked his hips to brush the tip of his erection against Sehun’s lips. “Like this,” he told Sehun, sliding into the boy’s tight mouth.

He tossed his head back then, groaning as the warmth and wetness of Sehun’s mouth blanketed his cock.

“Watch your teeth,” Kai said breathlessly as he carefully pushed deeper into Sehun. He stopped when the cockhead hit the back of Sehun’s throat, causing the boy to gag.

Pulling out, he smiled down at Sehun, whose eyes watered.

“You okay?” he asked.

Nodding, Sehun said, “Do you… like it?”

“So much,” Kai breathed out.

Taking it as an encouragement, Sehun wrapped his lips around the swollen shaft once more. He slowly sank in and sucked Kai into his mouth, smearing the length with his saliva while Kai gasped for air, fighting the urge to thrust hard down Sehun’s throat.

It did not take him all that long to reach his climax. As he felt himself near it, his body bathed in sweat, he took hold of Sehun’s head and pulled out of his mouth. Then keeping his gaze on Sehun’s swollen, red lips that were panting, Kai fisted a hand around his spit-slicked cock and began to pump it.

Sehun watched him with his lips parted and bated breath.

As he burst into white ropes of warm come, Kai let out a guttural groan while gripping Sehun’s hair with his other hand.

He collapsed against the bed for a while to gather his breaths. Sehun knelt up and wiped his mouth. He was red from face to neck.

Sitting up, Kai grabbed the boy’s waist and tackled him to lie down on the bed now. “My turn,” he rasped and started undoing Sehun’s pants.

* * *

With time, Sehun was more comfortable being a couple out in the public. Especially at school. Kai appreciated that Sehun tried to break some walls for him from time to time, although he never wanted Sehun to do anything that he did not want him to.

As they sauntered down the school hallway, Kai draped an arm over Sehun’s shoulders and pulled him close.

“So, all those years ago,” Kai said. “did you imagine that one day you would have the captain of the basketball team as your boyfriend?”

“Captain of the basketball team? No,” Sehun replied. “But captain of the football team, almost nightly.”

Kai scowled. “I know you’re joking, but I want to go and punch that bastard right now.”

Sehun giggled and leaned against Kai until they reached their lockers. Something shifted in Sehun’s expression then as he froze for a minute, frowning at nothing.

Kai glanced around them, wondering if something had bothered him. “What’s wrong?” he decided to ask.

Sehun’s frown deepened. “What… happens when we… go off to college?”

The question momentarily left Kai aghast. It was not as though the question had not popped into his own mind from time to time. He just never really chose to entertain it. Because it was too much, too stressful to even think about it.

Even though they both had applied to mostly the same colleges, Kai knew the chances of them being accepted to the same ones were slim.

“Can we not talk about that now?” he huffed exasperatedly. “We still a few months to think about that.”

Sehun did not argue with him on that. He never really argued with Kai on anything. But he did not look like he was happy with Kai’s response either.

He quietly pulled his locker open and withdrew some books.

Sighing, Kai caught his waist and pressed him against the lockers. “Hey,” he said gently, eyes boring into Sehun’s sad ones. “Nothing will end between us just because we are going off to college. I am not going to let that happen, okay?”

Sehun pulled his arms around Kai out of nowhere and buried his face in the crook of Kai’s neck. “Promise me,” he said in a miserable whisper.

Kai felt his heart skip a nervous beat. As much as he wanted to promise that to Sehun and keep it, he did not know what the future would hold for them.

“I promise,” he said, anyway. “I am never going to leave you, Sehun.”

Sehun took a moment to respond. But when he did, his voice was a mere whimper. “I would die if you did.”

* * *

“Can we watch something now?” Sehun asked, sounding a little bored when Kai stopped giving him his attention.

“In a moment,” Kai said for the nth time as he continued to play his videogame, sprawled on his bed, back leaning against the headboard.

Sehun made a disgruntled sound and rose from the bed to wander out of Kai’s bedroom. Kai did not stop him. He needed to complete this round without any distraction or he would have to restart from the checkpoint.

Sehun returned after a few minutes with a cat.

Kai paused the game to fix him with an incredulous look. “What the hell is that?”

“I found him in your backyard,” Sehun said, letting the stray cat go on the floor. He grinned at it as it sniffed around before hurrying to hide under the desk.

“So, you decided to bring him in?!”

Sehun pursed his lips and made some noises to call after the cat. Crouching near the desk, he dragged the confused feline out and wended over to the bed.

“No! You are not putting that dirty thing on my bed!”

“Then I will take him home with me now.” He started to rise from the bed with a pout on his lips.

Huffing heavily, Kai grabbed his boyfriend’s arm and yanked him back to the bed. “No, stay.”

“Then stop playing videogames,” Sehun mumbled, pinning Kai with a sad look while stroking the cat’s fur. He then let the cat back to the ground and faced Kai.

Putting the controller down, Kai beckoned Sehun to come closer. Sehun crawled over to him and straddled his waist, kneeling at his sides.

Sighing, Kai latched his hands onto Sehun’s hips and said, “Okay. You have my undivided attention now. What do you want to do?”

Sehun blinked vacantly for a moment. “I don’t know,” he muttered bashfully. “I just wanted you to look at me.”

“Now that I’m looking at you, why don’t you do something?” Kai smirked.

Sehun blushed with his hands pressed to Kai’s stomach. “What do you… want me to do?”

“Hmm,” Kai hummed, withdrawing one of his hands from Sehun’s hip to slide it into the boy’s shirt. Sehun shuddered when Kai’s fingers stroked his navel.

“No,” Sehun rasped and slapped Kai’s hand away. “Dad said I must be home before seven.”

Kai sat up, holding onto Sehun’s waist. “When are we… you know… going to go all the way?”

Sehun’s eyes widened. Kai was glad that the boy comprehended what Kai was referring to without having to explain it to him. Kai wondered if Sehun had looked that sort of things up.

“I don’t know,” he mumbled, eyes lowered, and ears reddened.

“You don’t know,” Kai breathed out and leaned in for a kiss. But with just a teasing brush of his lips upon Sehun’s, he pulled back. “How about now?”

Sehun let out a trembling breath. “Right… now?” he asked.

Tilting his head, Kai pressed a kiss to a side of Sehun’s neck. “Yes,” he breathed against it before kissing the spot once more. “Right. Now.”

He felt Sehun shiver in his hands. “Kai…”

Kai drew his lips up to Sehun’s jaw to pepper it with more kisses before he gently pressed their mouths together. For a while, Sehun yielded, letting himself go as Kai kissed him softly, coaxing him.

And then the damned cat cried out a shrill meow at the door, wanting to go outside.

Sehun backed away from Kai in a hurry and scrambled out of the bed. “I will take him outside,” he blurted out with a florid face as he picked the cat up into his arms. “You should get back to your game!”

Kai groaned, slamming his head back against the headboard as Sehun hurtled out of the bedroom with the cat.

* * *

The summery breeze brought a gentle warmth with it. Though Kai was usually glad for the holidays, this year, summer meant the end of an era. He had to say goodbye to most of his friends, though they all promised to keep in touch.

He got a temporary job, coaching kids at the local basketball club. Whenever he was not at work, he was in Sehun’s arms.

They both dreaded the day they would leave for college. And even if Kai meant to keep his promise, he did not know how things would unfurl. So, all that he could do for now was make sure that he and Sehun had the most magical summer of all.

It took a while, but they did go all the way one hot summer night. It had happened out of nowhere, too. Neither of them had been prepared for it, but they had not been able to stop themselves either.

When they woke up the next morning, all cuddled up and tangled together, Kai touched Sehun’s waist and asked if he was okay.

Sehun had refused to answer, hiding his face in Kai’s chest. But after a while, holding onto Kai under the blankets, he said, “Don’t go anywhere.”

And so, they stayed in bed for most of the day until Sehun was ready for a break.

Their first time had been sloppy and a little awkward. But over the summer, Kai had learned all the things that made Sehun feel good, and Sehun made the effort to do the things that made Kai feel good. Soon, they could barely keep their hands to themselves when they were alone within four walls.

* * *

Baby died at the end of July. As Kai helped Sehun bury the cat in the backyard, Sehun sat on the ground, curled up into a ball with his knees hugged to his chest. He cried some, though not as much as he would have had he still been a child.

It was the first time Kai had seen the way Sehun coped with death and grief. He treasured the bowl he used to feed the cat with and put up a temporary shrine for Baby with the pictures he had taken of the cat over the years. And there were many.

Going through the photographs to put up on the shrine, Kai found pictures of all sorts of stray cats and dogs.

“You don’t have any picture of me?” asked Kai.

Sehun looked at him with puffy eyes. “No,” he muttered.

“So, this ugly thing is worthy of a photograph, but I’m not?” he asked, pointing to the picture of a dog.

Sehun snatched it from his hand and put it back in the shoebox he had collected the photographs in.

Kai smiled and wrapped his arms around the boy. “I’m trying to make you laugh,” he said, brushing a kiss to Sehun’s temple.

“It feels like I’m never going to laugh again,” Sehun let out. “I don’t want… anyone to leave me. Ever.”

The way his mother had. Perhaps that was why Sehun was too afraid of people. Because he was worried that he would not be important enough for them to stay. And when they left, he was the one who would hurt for a very long time.

“I’m never going to leave you, Sehun,” Kai said, holding him tight. “Never. Okay?”

Sehun let a tear shed. He then raised his head and kissed Kai’s lips. “I won’t either.”

* * *

When the time came, Sehun stood in his driveway, watching Kai load the car with his bags from across the street.

“Is that all?” his father asked when Kai handed him the last of his belongings.

“Yeah, I think so,” Kai muttered. His chest was hurting so bad that he could hardly concentrate.

His parents were driving him to his college today. On the other side of the state. Sehun would leave for his own college next week.

“Isn’t this exciting?” chimed Kai’s mother as she made her way out of the house. “Our son’s going off to college.”

“With a good basketball team,” said his father.

“We will come visit and you will come home often, sweetheart,” she said, stroking Kai’s arm. “Don’t look so down.”

“I’m not sad about leaving _you_ guys,” Kai grumbled and glanced back at Sehun, who was waiting for him on the other side of the street. He sighed heavily. “I’ll be right back.”

Crossing the road, he plunged his hands into the pockets of his jacket as he wended his way over to Sehun. Even from a distance, he could already see the tears welled up in Sehun’s eyes.

Sehun sniffled when Kai stopped before him. Neither of them said anything for a long minute. Kai tried to swallow the sob in his throat before speaking. But then Sehun beat him to it.

“I will miss you,” he said in a soft, trembling voice.

Kai’s heart clenched. The next thing he knew, he was lurching forward to cup Sehun’s face in his hands. He did not hold himself back as he kissed Sehun desperately, as though there was no tomorrow.

He then kissed Sehun’s teary eyes one after the other before he looked into them. “I am only an hour away from your campus, Sehun. We will see each other again in a week. I will come see you all the time.”

Sehun nodded his head, lowering his gaze. “Just… don’t forget… about me.”

“Never,” Kai rasped and smashed their lips together once more. “I love you.”

Sehun enveloped his arms around Kai and leaned in for a hug to cry against Kai’s shoulder. “I… love… you. So much.”

Pulling back, Kai kissed him all over the face before giving him one last kiss on the lips. “Now, will you smile for me?”

Sehun managed a shaky, faint smile. Kai pressed a kiss to his forehead and began to pull away half-heartedly.

“One week,” he told Sehun as he walked away, keeping his eyes on Sehun.

In one week, they were about to begin the rest of their lives together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for leaving comments and kudos!


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